In wake of murder of N.Y. boy, it’s important to get Jewish communities straight

“No Loshon harah,” the biblical prohibition against speaking ill of a fellow Jew, “for this animal. I wouldn’t even call him a Jew!” wrote Hocker411 on the website of Yeshiva World News. “There should be no tshuva,” repentance, “for such heinous actions!”

Flickr/Yorkaholic

The comment poster — whose handle means “gossiper” in Yiddish — was discussing Levi Aron, often misidentified on the site as Aaron Levi, the man who allegedly murdered and dismembered the 8-year-old boy Leiby Kletzky.

Hocker411 went even further, using the condemnation typically reserved for anti-Semites like Hitler — “Yemach shemo,” Hebrew for “May his name be cursed” — when he referred to Aron, whom he praised the Orthodox Yeshiva World News for identifying by name.

For the parents of the 8-year-old victim, the dust will never settle, and it’s hard to imagine how they will ever manage to continue living their lives. But as time passes since accounts of the horrific crime were first reported, it’s worth issuing grades on how well reporters helped readers understand the Jewish communities involved.

Three different versions of Associated Press-driven stories in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and on the CBS website focused on different aspects of the Hasidic community.

“The gruesome killing shocked the tight-knit Hasidic community in Borough Park, in part because it is one of the safest sections of the city and because Aron is himself an Orthodox Jew, although not Hasidic,” according to CBS. “The Hasidim are ultra-Orthodox Jews.”

“The Hasidim are ultra-Orthodox Jews,” echoed the LA Times, noting that they live in “somewhat insular neighborhoods.”

“Hasidic Jews abide by strict religious rules that require men to wear plain, dark clothing that includes a long coat and a fedora-type hat,” added Washington Post. “Men often have long beards. Most of the 165,000 members in the New York City the area live in Brooklyn and belong to three sects. Hasidism traces its roots to 18th-century Eastern Europe.”

The CBS statement is particularly noteworthy insofar as it implies, if not directly suggests, that Aron’s blend of Judaism is Orthodox, while Hasidic Jews are ultra-Orthodox. In their conspicuous dress — furry hats called streimels, long coats and ritual fringes called tzitzit — and their long beards and side curls (called payot), Hassidic men are often assumed to be ultra-Orthodox and more right wing than their other Orthodox peers.

But Hassidicism, whose founder the Baal Shem Tov (Hebrew for “master of the good name”) brought more of a mystical and romantic approach to Judaism, much of it based in Kabbalah, often represents the more liberal side of Orthodox Judaism.

Mitnagdim — Hebrew for “those who are against,” meaning in opposition to Hassidicism — often dress less conspicuously, but are not necessarily less strict in their religious lifestyle. For example, the Orthodox rabbis in Lakewood, N.J., who banned the Internet in the homes of their congregants are Mitnagdim, not Hasidim.

Two of the most powerful Orthodox rabbinic voices to support the arts were both Hasidic rabbis, Avraham Y.H. Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, in his famous inaugural remarks at the opening of the Israeli art school, Bezalel, and Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.

Meanwhile, Moshe Feinstein, considered by many Orthodox Jews to have been one of the greatest rabbis of his time, wrote in one of his legal works that little children should not be taught to draw in school, lest they learn to draw the sun, moon and stars, and thus violate the Second Commandment. Reb Moshe, as he was known, was not a Hasid.

When the New York Times reported that the boy “was kidnapped and killed, the police say, at the hands of another apparently religious Jew, though not a Hasidic one,” the paper got it right.

Even if Aron was not Hasidic, that fact didn’t seem to make any difference to the readers commenting on the Yeshiva World News website, who either supported him as a fellow Jew — whatever his denomination — or called him a monster and denied his Jewish identity.

“He’s obviously a sick person,” said MichelleNY. “I’m not sure the title ‘evil monster’ is appropriate for YWN. Especially if he is a Jew, we must understand this man is not well.”

JL questioned the latter statement, wondering, “How can this man be a jew? I cannot be masig,” Hebrew for understand, “it on any level.”

Other people posting comments weren’t too sure the news service had sufficient legal ground to circumvent the rabbinic commandment to be “Dan lekaf zechut” — to judge fellow Jews favorably until proven otherwise — or to avoid libelous remarks, Lashon harah.

An entire thread developed elsewhere on the Yeshiva World News website about whether Jewish law required feeling sorry for Aron, embracing him as a Jew despite his faults or putting him to death. “Sadly, in N.Y., this nudnik,” Yiddish for nuisance, “will spend decades on a kosher diet in some upstate prison,” said Asher Anthony.

Give Me a Break II said Aron deserved the death penalty, citing an example of the rabbi Elazar the son of rabbi Shimon, who “for circumstantial evidence reported Jewish thieves,” which couldn’t be put to death according to Jewish law, “to the Romans.”

Even if it didn’t make a difference to YWN readers, though, it’s important to dig deeper than superficial stereotypes and to be careful about politically- and religious-charged terms like “ultra-Orthodox,” “Hasidic” and even “Orthodox.”

Hopefully, future opportunities to re-emphasize the lesson will come under far happier circumstances.

11 Responses

The people who live in Lakewood aren’t really Mitnagdim. First of all, there is a sizable Chassidic community in Lakewood, but moreover, the Mitnagid archetype doesn’t really exist anymore. BMG students don’t define themselves wrt resistance towards the Chassidic movement and really that kind of thing has been dead for about a hundred years. Litvak, or some other term must be closer to what they actually are than this pretty much antiquated expression…

Very good points, all of them. I wanted to keep the size of the post manageable, and those would have been aspects I’d touch on if I expand this. I certainly didn’t mean to suggest Lakewood was a Chasid-free zone, or that it was anti-Chasidic. I think my point stands, though, that there’s a misunderstanding about the terms “Chasid” and “ultra-Orthodox,” and a lack of awareness about how to draw the Venn diagram.

Wow, what tragic collective selfishness exists amongst these religious groups!! With such focus on caring for “their own kind” and relative disregard for others, it leaves one to wonder what room is left for genuine morality.

With respect to group dynamics, it’s important to distinguish between empowering and caring: To want to empower a group that one identifies with, even disempower other groups, is justifiable to the extent that one’s own group’s empowerment is better for the greater good. But to care more for members of a group with which one identifies, and thus care less for others, is simply wrong and, when taken to extremes, downright evil.

Getting to the specific and concrete, unless you’re trying to figure out why, who frickin’ cares about the religious background of the boy who was killed or of his murderer?!! Everyone, not just those within certain religious groups, should care about Leiby Kletzky and his undoubtedly grief-stricken family. Everyone, for that matter, should care for Levi Aron (and his likely grief stricken family)–as it is a tragic waste that he came to be so destructive of another’s, and his own, life. Anyone of good conscience would want to prevent such tragedies–regardless of whether potential perpetrators or victims might be Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, Hasidic, or whatever.

Collective selfishness may seem “normal,” “natural,” or even “perfectly justifiable” to many, but to the extent that anyone is limited in empathy and compassion, we are all diminished.

Agreed. This is absolutely a human tragedy first, and a Hasidic one second. My point isn’t to be clear about denominations to identify who should be the mourners. I think it’s important to understand how religious groups function and define themselves. The reporting on this tragedy demonstrated, in my opinion, that there is a good deal of confusion about the communities in question.

I have to take issue with both of you. While I found the “teaching moment” about these cultures useful, I did not find anything about this crime that made what group was liberal, conservative, Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox at all relevant. I don’t think the love or hate between sectarian groups has anything to do with murdering and dismembering a child. Yes, I get that when reporting on the less relevant details, the press can be callous about stepping on personal identities, and when people are shocked, you don’t want to untruthfully paint a picture of a world alien to the mainstream which happened to be the setting and get them connecting non-existent dots about the acceptability of murder in their cultures, but actual, reasonable editorial control could have avoided making the distinctions between Jewish sects an issue.

Good point, and I want to be absolutely clear: I have no reason to assume that different denominational roles had anything to do with this. My only point is that it’s important to get these communities right. There are differences between the beliefs and religious practices of Catholics, Baptists and Mormons. So too, there is a difference between Hasidic communities and certain other types of Orthodox Jewish communities. Maybe those differences are far less pronounced than those between Baptists and Mormons, but it’s still important to pay people the courtesy of being intellectually honest and responsible about this sort of thing.

PayAttention, no offense intended, but your remarks don’t seem to have anything to do with what I wrote, so I don’t see what issue you take with me, specifically.

To get us on the same page, so to speak, I would suggest that you read up on ingroup/outgroup bias in a social psychology textbook; then reread Menachem’s blog, focusing mainly on the quotes; and then reread my comments. That should at least give you an understanding as to what motivated my words. Then if you still take issue, I’d be very interested to know exactly what bothers you.

What I don’t understand about all this is why when the boy was crying to Heaven for help, God did not send one of His angels?? I am not blaming this on God I just don’t understand why He would allow it? I get the feeling he was praying for help But of all this, I believe the real culprit here is SATAN people need to stop blaming people, and recognize that in Judaism Satan was responsible for the killing of Job’s family, for the fall of human kind, and for the betrayal of Jesus by Judas for Satan entered Judas heart just as I believe he entered this sick predator’s heart. I am Catholic and I’m sorry this happened in your community but there are too many questions than there are answers. Rest assured we have prayed for him and your community. I heard the Israeli child mentioned in the offering of Mass this past Monday here in a Los Angeles suburb Church. I was there.

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